MOD announces £1.5m investment for 12 space innovation projects

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) will make an investment of £1.5m across 12 winning space innovation projects from the ‘Space to Innovate’ competition held by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
According to the MOD, the winning projects cover the entire spectrum of innovative ideas, from a state-of-the-art imaging technology developed at the University of Strathclyde, to futuristic optical communication technology developed by mBryonics.
The other winners in the competition include MDA Space and Robotics, Oxford Space Systems, Harwell Associates, University of Warwick, Fraunhofer UK, Teledyne e2v, VEOWARE and QinetiQ.
The prevailing bidders in the space innovation competition will share more than £1.5m of funding that will be jointly provided by Dstl and the UK Space Agency’s (UKSA) National Space Technology Programme. The investment is expected to further help in the development of the concepts.

The MOD said that the initial stage of development of the selected space innovation projects will complete with a demonstration day scheduled during summer 2020, at which point additional funding is likely to be available.
Dstl took up the space innovation competition to identify and fund new technologies that could boost the country’s resilience, awareness, and capability in space. The main challenges defined in the competition include the development of technology to enhance the surveillance capability of British satellites and detect potentially hostile actors in space.
UK Defence Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “It’s vital we harness the ideas of the brightest and best innovators to improve the UK’s resilience and awareness in space.
“Faced with growing threats to UK interests, programmes like those selected today will boost our intelligence capability and help us stay ahead of our adversaries.”
The space innovation competition attracted over 60 bids from across the world. It was carried out by the MOD’s innovation hub – the Defence and Security Accelerator, on behalf of Dstl.
Dstl chief executive Gary Aitkenhead said: “Our role at Dstl is to provide innovative solutions, underpinning science and technology to access the best space has to offer for defence and security, but also to protect our interests against growing threats.
“I am delighted that the competition has unearthed a breadth of UK expertise from a good mix of industry, academia, and SMEs. And I welcome the UK Space Agency’s investment which will ensure that the civilian market will also benefit.”
Earlier this month, a contract worth around £70m was awarded by the MOD to QinetiQ to develop improved satellite receivers. The Ministry is also looking to tender contracts to develop the £6bn SKYNET 6 programme in the next few months.
Originally published here